I can understand that, as the number of vacancies will certainly be limited, your friend doesn't want extra competition when she's applying for a job. (It's bad enough getting turned down for a job but a million times worse when a friend, who might not have found out about the vacancy if you'd not mentioned it in the first place, nicks it from under your nose!).
However jobs are in short supply at the moment. If you think that you'd make a good candidate, go for it!